The winning images will be promoted on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram with the hashtags #noneedforweed and #letsbeblunt and will also appear on the tails of Milwaukee County Transit System buses beginning July 10, 2017.

While adults understand the dangers marijuana poses to young people, adults aren’t always the best ones to deliver that message. That’s why these youth-created graphics and messages are so powerful. They address marijuana’s negative impact on a young person’s developing brain, goal-setting, and ability to make one’s own decisions while encouraging young people to live free of drugs.

Research shows that youth typically start experimenting with drugs like marijuana around the ages of 12 to 13, so the Youth Summit attendees suggested using social media as one of the most effective vehicles to reach them and their peers.

“Young people who start using marijuana as teenagers need to know how this behavior impacts them long term. How drug use may affect how their brain, their thinking, memory, and learning functions,” said Kari Lerch, Deputy Director, Community Advocates Public Policy Institute. “We must continue to push positive messages to young people, to educate and inform them on how to live their best lives, free of all drugs.”

MCSAP’s Let’s Be Blunt II initiative builds on its 2015 campaign to engage youth in voicing their concerns about the damage marijuana can do to young people and how they can create positive alternatives to using drugs.

“We’re thrilled that so many young people are getting involved in preventing their peers from using marijuana,” said Kasaundra Brown, MCSAP Coordinator. “This truly is a campaign for youth, by youth.”